uBuy Buttons Coming To A Twitter Feed Near Your

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• “Buy buttons” are all the rage right now: from Google search ads to Apple’s product pages, companies are streamlining the buying process by cutting out the need to toggle between several pages to purchase a product. Now, that simplicity can be found in your Twitter feed.

  Online payments company Stripe announced Monday that it now allows retailers to sell their goods directly on Twitter and other e-commerce apps via a new service called Relay.

  “Relay makes it easier for developers to build great mobile e-commerce experiences, and for stores to participate in them,” Stripe says in a blog post. “For stores, you can use Relay to enable instant purchases in third-party mobile apps: one of our launch partners, Twitter, is using Relay to enable anyone to start selling within tweets.”

  According to Stripe, Relay lets merchants compose one buy button that can be placed on Twitter and other apps in as little as 30 seconds, streamlining a process that previously required customers to click through to retailer’s own websites — a task that can be complicated on smartphones.

  The Wall Street Journal reports that eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker and Saks Fifth Avenue are among the first companies selling products using Relay.

  Twitter’s head of commerce, Nathan Hubbard, tells the WSJ that by integrating Relay into its app, the social network is able to collapse the distance between consumers’ stated desires on the service and the ability to fulfill those needs.

  “We have 50 million-plus users every month who are tweeting some signal of intent with the words ‘I want’ or ‘I need,’” Hubbard says.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uAmerican Airlines Flight Diverted After Unruly Passenger Allegedly Kissed, Then Punched Attendantr

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  (ABC News — video in link autoplays)

  An American Airlines flight heading to Chicago from Miami had to make an unscheduled stop in Indianapolis on Monday afternoon, after a disoriented passenger became disruptive, reportedly kissing and then punching a flight attendant in the face.

  “She was disoriented through the entire flight, not being able to find her seat, walking back and forth,” one passenger told ABC 7 in Chicago. “And when she came to the back, she was sweating profusely.”

  Other witnesses said her behavior kept getting more and more out of hand as the flight went on, with passengers saying she was “screaming expletives” repeatedly in the back of the plane, and kicking the seat of the passenger in front of her.

  When that person turned around to complain, a witness said she hit him. At that time, a flight attendant took the woman to the back of the plane, and tried to calm the woman down.

  “She seemed really calm,” a fellow passenger said of the woman. “She was talking about her boyfriend. And then, all of a sudden, she grabbed [the flight attendant] by the face, kissed her and then punched her in the face.”

  The pilot came over the intercom at that point and asked for help in restraining the passenger, asking for “large passengers” to assist.

  She reportedly struggled on the ground while she was being restrained, and continued to curse and swear at those around her. An airport spokesman said she was removed from the aircraft upon landing in Indianapolis and taken into custody by airport police, before the county sheriff’s office picked her up and transported her to jail.

  She was charged with with battery with injury, battery without injury, battery of a public safety officer, criminal recklessness, disorderly conduct and disruption of the operation of an aircraft.

  The plane continued on to Chicago and landed about 90 minutes late. Witnesses said the flight attendant needed an ice pack on her face, but was generally okay. Or as okay as you can be when someone punches you in the face.

  AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT TO CHICAGO DIVERTED FOR UNRULY PASSENGER [ABC 7 News Chicago]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTarget Partners With Instacart To Test Grocery Delivery Service In Minneapolisr

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  (Mike Mozart)

  Just a month after Target made it clear grocery delivery was in its not-too-distant future, the retailer has kicked off a test of the service in its hometown of Minneapolis via online grocery delivery company Instacart.

  Instacart, which recently expanded to the Minneapolis area, announced that it is partnering with Target to handle on-demand deliveries of groceries, household products and other items to customers in many parts of the city starting on Tuesday.

  “We’re excited to be partnering with another company that believes in the power of innovation as much as we do,” Instacart says.

  A spokesperson for Target tells the Star Tribune that while the test of grocery delivery is just getting underway, the company is already in talks to expand to other markets.

  “We’re excited we’re able to launch this pilot right here in Minneapolis where our team can monitor it very closely,” he added.

  Through the partnership, customers can have select household, health and beauty, pet and baby products, as well as groceries from Target stores delivered to their homes in about an hour.

  In addition to partnering with Target for the pilot in Minneapolis, Instacart will make deliveries for Whole Foods and Cub Foods.

  The company says it has already hired 150 mostly part-time employees to serve as personal shoppers to fulfill delivery orders, the Star Tribune reports.

  Instacart’s initial delivery area will include downtown Minneapolis, Uptown, Dinkytown, Edina, St. Louis Park, Richfield and Hopkins. It charges $3.99 for a two-hour delivery or $5.99 for deliveries within an hour for orders over $35.

  [via The Star Tribune]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uChurch And State Officials Really Mad At Scalpers Of Papal Procession Ticketsr

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  (Republic of Korea)

  Pope Francis is visiting three East Coast cities this week, bringing holiness and traffic snarls everywhere he goes. While tickets to papal events are usually limited to parishioners living nearby, the city government in New York made 40,000 tickets available by lottery for a procession in Central Park. Free tickets by free lottery. Naturally, people are trying to sell these tickets for hundreds or thousands of dollars online.

  Officials of both church and state have condemned the people behind these transactions for really, really missing the point of offering tickets for free to the general public: the idea was to give everyone (well, all residents of New York state) an equal chance at being allowed to attend the procession.

  Selling these tickets “goes against everything Pope Francis stands for,” the archbishop of New York told USA Today. Maybe he would approve if the seller took the money and donated it to a homeless shelter or food pantry, but that’s about it.

  The mayor’s office has been working to shut sales down online wherever they can, with eBay and Craigslist agreeing to take down ads for the tickets whenever they spot them, but it’s impossible to control people swapping tickets in real life for cash.

  New York officials condemn selling of Pope Francis tickets [USA Today]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

u2 Ounces Quietly Shrink Rayed From Economy-Size Bottles Of Shoutr

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• Jarrod was shopping at Target when he noticed something: there were two different designs of Shout bottles on the shelf. Since redesigns often mask strikes of the Grocery Shrink Ray, he checked the labels, even though the bottles appeared to be the same size. Indeed, the 32-ounce “economy size” bottle shrank down to 30 ounces, but at least the price came down, too.

  

  “I guess they’re right when they say the economy is shrinking…” Jarrod wrote when he sent us these photos. Well, sure, this economy[-size bottle.]

  You’ll notice that the price came down slightly, too: that’s the same price to the penny that Walmart has the same product for in my area, so it may be that the price has fallen, there’s a new manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or the stores are matching each other for a temporary post-shrinkage sale.

  Here are the sizes on the labels, for comparison. It’s strange how the type is bigger on the newly shrunken bottle, as if they aren’t interested in being subtle.

  

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uNo, You Shouldn’t Incorporate And Register Your Car Tax-Free In Montanar

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• Car ownership is fun and convenient, but paying sales tax, use tax, or personal property tax on your car is expensive and annoying. What if you could avoid that, and avoid annual car inspections, just by filling out a little bit of paperwork? That’s the premise of companies that offer to help you incorporate in Montana, have your corporation own the vehicle, and pay no taxes.

  If you’re an actual resident of the state of Montana, this post doesn’t apply to you. As a resident of that state, you’re supposed to register your vehicle there. It’s the rest of us, who have the misfortune to live in places that aren’t Montana, who might find this scheme tempting. The problem, Michigan lemon law attorney Steve Lehto explains: the state where you actually live can always catch up with you.

  Here’s how it works: you pay a few hundred bucks to a law firm in Montana to register a limited liability corporation. Your LLC then purchases the car as your “company car.” Your corporation doesn’t exist for any reason other than to own your car, and you only owe Montana registration fees and a payment to the lawyers to keep your corporation registered.

  If this worked, wouldn’t everyone register their car in Montana? This scheme doesn’t really pay off if you’re buying a used 2004 Camry, but it’s tempting if you want to buy a six-figure supercar. (Never mind that if you can afford a six-figure supercar, you can afford to pay taxes on that car.)

  Lehto points out in a blog post for Jalopnik that there are two problems with this: first, you can probably get away with the scheme for a while, but do you really want to risk tax penalties over this? Second, your insurance company will probably not be thrilled with your registration scheme, which will cause problems when you get in an accident, and the insurance company denies your claim when they notice that the car is registered to a Montana LLC.

  In summary: try being honest and paying the taxes you owe. You generally can’t go wrong by doing that.

  The Pitfalls Of The Montana License Plate Scam [The Garage]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uCollege-Bound Students Can Fill Out Their FAFSA Forms 3 Months Earlier Starting Next Yearr

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  (Eric Spiegel)

  Each year Consumerist reminds college-bound students and their families that billions of dollars in college aid will go unclaimed because so many people won’t take the time to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid [FAFSA] form. But a new initiative by the Department of Education aims to change that by revamping the application process: starting it earlier and making it easier to fill out.

  The current FAFSA application process begins in January and can’t be completed until tax forms can be retrieved from the Internal Revenue Service.

  The Department of Education today announced that starting in the fall of 2016 it will better align the FAFSA process with that of the college application process, allowing families to fill out the FAFSA form starting October 1 for the following academic year.

  By moving the start date for the FAFSA process up three months, the Department believe it can better show students the “true cost” of attending college while they start their college application process, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan tells the Chicago Tribune.

  Additionally, the new initiative will streamline the often daunting task of filling out the tax-like form by utilizing earlier tax information. Families will now be able to use a tool that directly retrieves their tax information directly from the IRS.

  By using the tool, the Dept. of Education estimates the time needed to fill out a FAFSA form will decrease from one hour to about 20 minutes.

  “This earlier and easier access to financial aid information will make it simpler for students to access critical federal student aid dollars and will offer more accurate information about college costs as students decide where to enroll,” the Dept. of Education said in a blog post on Monday.

  Duncan tells the Chicago Tribune that the new process could have a huge impact on students over time.

  “We estimate that over the next several years, literally hundreds of thousands of additional students will actually gain access to critical student aid each year, because more students and their families will find it easier to apply for that aid,” he said.

  New Tools to Help Students Make Informed Decisions About Higher Education [The Department of Education]
  [via The Chicago Tribune]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist